modkip wrote:

Some people say the drivers are still on the Live! installation cd's from before 2000, but i can't seem to find those

Where exactly have you been looking? There are many threads about those drivers on this board. The Liveware 3.0 CD from https://www.vogonsdrivers.com/ is usually recommended.

Unless your "DOS pc" is older than a Pentium 4, it will probably be impossible to use a PCI sound card with a DOS program unless you start it while Windows 98 is running.

Ask old hardware and its configuration in Marvin. This forum is for DOS games on modern systems.

It is possible to use a PCI sound card with real DOS - I'm doing so with my P4 rig. Ive tested a SB16 and Turtle Beach Vortex 2 and both work, although the TB is by far the best.

[quote="Jorpho".

Unless your "DOS pc" is older than a Pentium 4, it will probably be impossible to use a PCI sound card with a DOS program unless you start it while Windows 98 is running.[/quote]

McDos wrote:

It is possible to use a PCI sound card with real DOS - I'm doing so with my P4 rig.

Yes, that's why I said "probably". Some P4 motherboards can do it, but others cannot.

Provided you find the correct installation CD, when you run the installer under Windows, it will ask you whether you want to install the DOS drivers. If not, then you know that your installation CD doesn't contain the DOS drivers. You can install it manually, but that's a different story.

I still have the installation CD for my Live! sound card with the DOS drivers and, although I was able to "emulate" a Sound Blaster 16 under DOS with this sound card, I had mixed results (and that was still on a Celeron 566 MHz).
Setting up a PCI sound card under DOS is tricky and can lead to all kinds of problems, since there are limitations as to how good a PCI sound card can emulate a Sound Blaster ISA based card under DOS (without going into all the details - there are already numerous posts on this subject).

If you are running Windows 98SE, just try and run your DOS game from within a (full screen) DOS Command Prompt. Most DOS protected mode games runs fine from within a Command Prompt (I've actually tested both Doom & Duke Nukem 3D this way and they run fine).

Im sorry guys i've been incredibly stupid and haven't checked anything on the hardware side, apparently there was something wrong with the PCI slot or something

I got it almost fully up and running, even in DOS
but if i select the sound blaster in the Doom setup it sounds very high pitched
if i select general midi it sounds normal tho
does anyone know how i fix that?

Make sure the settings in your setup menu matches the emulated settings of the sound card under DOS (DMA, IRQ, etc.). The default settings are normally A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6. You can also add this as a string in your Autoexec.bat file with the "SET BLASTER=" in front of the string
However, this is normally not required for protected mode games like Doom, etc, since these games are configured by the settings that are selected in the game's setup menu.

If that doesn't work, try running the game from within Windows (command prompt) and see whether it's still the same.

modkip wrote:

Im sorry guys i've been incredibly stupid and haven't checked anything on the hardware side, apparently there was something wron […]
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Im sorry guys i've been incredibly stupid and haven't checked anything on the hardware side, apparently there was something wrong with the PCI slot or something

I got it almost fully up and running, even in DOS
but if i select the sound blaster in the Doom setup it sounds very high pitched
if i select general midi it sounds normal tho
does anyone know how i fix that?

You already found the fix, use General MIDI instead of Sound Blaster for music. The FM emulation of the Live! isn't very good.

i tried to edit the settings in the Autoexec.bat but it didn't help
If i start it via windows, the pitch is correct, but it tries to use the wrong instruments or something.

Kamerat, if i was content with general midi i would've stopped already, i just want it to work entirely how it should

modkip wrote:

i just want it to work entirely how it should

Then you probably shouldn't be using a PCI sound card.

I think you might get somewhere in Windows if you load the right soundfont before starting (see for instance https://zdoom.org/wiki/Sound_fonts ).

modkip wrote:

Kamerat, if i was content with general midi i would've stopped already, i just want it to work entirely how it should

You can try to change the "Waveset=" in CTSYN.INI (usually placed in C:\WINDOWS) to EAPCI4M.ECW or EAPCI8M.ECW (usually placed in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM) for better General MIDI music under DOS. For music you will never get the same sound as an ISA Sound Blaster with the Live!.

Are your sound effects sounding right?

Yeah my sound effects are exactly as they should.
Ill try the CTSYN.INI thing when i get back home,
and i guess ill start searching for an ISA SoundBlaster then, never hurts to have another one right? 😉
I just was very fond of this one because it had like a joystick port too, which i don't have a special card for or something.

Anyways my problem is solved enough, so thanks for all your help! 😁

modkip wrote:

I just was very fond of this one because it had like a joystick port too, which i don't have a special card for or something.

I suppose there must be some sound cards out there (especially newer ones) without joystick ports, but FYI, pretty much any sound card you're ever likely to use with Doom has a joystick port.

Get a YMF-724 if you want the best PCI card for adlib.

Full marks to the Aureal SQ2500 in terms of DOS compatibility in that case (being PCI) - you can even pass-through to a General MIDI "Waveblaster" compatible wavetable daughterboard. It's a case of copying "au30dos.com" and the SET BLASTER parameters, adding "P=???" for a waveblaster.

brostenen wrote:

Get a YMF-724 if you want the best PCI card for adlib.

Or something like an ESS Solo-1 if you don't mind ESFM.